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Art History Students Curate "Renaissance Man"

12/16/2024

Students in the upper-level Saint Louis University Art History course Research Methods curated "Renaissance Man," a collection of paintings by the Honorable Nathan B. Young Jr.  

This exhibition can be found at the Saint Louis University Museum of Art (SLUMA).

Two students look at paintings on a gallery wall while one gestures toward a painting.

Art History students Karson Million and Lucas Perez helped to curate "Renaissance Man."

About the Exhibition

A man of diverse talents and ambitions, Nathan B. Young Jr. served the city of St. Louis as a lawyer, judge, historian and journalist while pursuing his creative passions as a novelist, musician and artist. After more than 30 years of practicing law in St. Louis, Young served as the assistant city counselor until 1965, when he was appointed judge of Municipal Court No. 2, the first African American to serve in the position in St. Louis.

A blonde student in a yellow scarf studies a painting

Student Madeline Shormas at Saint Louis University Museum of Art.

Before his death in 1993, the Saint Louis University Archives began working with Young and his family to preserve his vast archive of personal effects. His collections included over 500 acrylic-on-canvas paintings executed during a 20-year period between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s. A self-taught artist, Young's paintings reveal that he was well-versed in the history of art, particularly in the major European and American works depicting people of African descent, as well as images related to the American anti-slavery and Civil Rights movements. "Renaissance Man," curated by the participants in the art history course, ARTH 4900: Research Methods, presents a selection of works that demonstrate Young's complex and multidimensional engagement with racial themes through the lens of art history.

A professor discusses a painting on the wall while students observe.

Professor Bradley Bailey and students discuss Judge Young's body of work in "Renaissance Man," available for viewing at SLUMA.

Media Coverage

Christine Jackson of St. Louis Magazine has recognized Renaissance Man as one of the top 10 art exhibitions to experience this December. The publication also spotlighted the exhibition alongside "The Past Beneath Our Feet," which is concurrently on display at the Saint Louis University Museum of Art.

Read the St. Louis Magazine Feature

Art History Program Director Bradley Bailey, Ph.D., mentored the students' work curating this exhibition.

“Young produced over 500 paintings and we knew that we would have to drastically limit the scope of what we could exhibit given the space and timeframe in which we had to work," Bailey said. "A solution to this problem was to focus on his engagement with the history of art, which was ideal for a course like this one on the methodological practices of art historians. This is the third exhibition that I've organized as part of this course, and every time the students have thrown themselves into it. It is wonderful to see the sense of ownership they have in it, having seen so many exhibitions by others and now having the chance to see their own writing on the gallery wall.”